Using Wi-Fi DAQ with a Wireless Ad Hoc Network

Overview

A wireless ad hoc network is defined as “a temporary close range connection between wireless devices." An ad hoc Wi-FI network allows you to communicate between two wireless devices without the need for a router or access point. For wireless data acquisition applications, this means you can communicate directly with a WLS-9xxx Wi-Fi DAQ device from your laptop or other wireless host.

The following tutorial provides step-by-step instructions for configuring your computer and wireless DAQ device to use an ad hoc network configuration.

1. Step 1 - Configure the Host for a Static IP Address

The first step is to set your Wireless Network Connection Properties to use a static IP. You can accomplish this by going to: Control Panel » Network Connections. From here you will change the “Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)” to be similar to Figure 1 below. You can select any private IP address following the RFC 1918 guidelines.

If you complete the tutorials in Vista, you will see your connection in a state: “Waiting for users to connect” (Figure 2) and in XP: a red “x” next to the SSID name you just set (Figure 3).

Note: Some computers have a wireless configuration utility created by the manufacturer of the computer or the wireless hardware. These utilities typically run as a background process and may take control of some features of your wireless card, such as power, IEEE 802.11 channel, available networks, etc.

The default behavior of some of such wireless configuration utilities is to automatically connect to any available network in range (ad hoc or otherwise). This may keep you from connecting to your WLS-9163 after the ethernet cable is unplugged, because you configuration utility may already be connected to another wireless network.

Solution: Disable any wireless utility running on your computer and make sure that on your dialog window for: "View Available Networks" in XP and "Connect to a Network" in Vista, your are disconnected from all networks and your new SSID is showing up on the list. The default configuration utility for Windows XP is the Wireless Zero Configuration Utility (WZC).

3. Step 3 - Connect WLS-9xxx to the Host Computer over Ethernet

The third step is to connect the WLS-9xxx to your computer. You can use a regular Ethernet cable to connect the WLS-9xxx to your computer (no cross over is needed). From here, you can configure the device using Measurement and Automation Explorer (MAX):